Review: BlackBerry Z10's Camera Function

A quick look at the BBZ10's 8-Megapixel camera

We've been testing the BlackBerry Z10 for about a week now, getting ready to publish our full review. In the meantime, we thought we'd give you a taste of what the camera function has to offer. We've added it in the Face-Off, where you can compare photos taken on it with pictures taken on competing smartphones.

Multimedia—photography in particular—has never been one of the BlackBerry's strengths. Nonetheless, with the Z10 RIM is targeting the general public just as much as professionals, and has reportedly worked at improving the multimedia features on this new, potentially company-saving smartphone.

Can you count on the Z10 to take quality photos? How well does the sensor handle night shots compared to the iPhone 5, Galaxy S3 and Lumia 920?

Here's what we've found so far...

Handling

To snap photos, you hit a touch button (there's no physical camera button). The autofocus is far from perfect and the digital image stabiliser isn't particularly effective either. This is not a good camera for taking on-the-fly photos—you really have to find the right shot and hold the phone steady if you don't want a blurry image. But the flash helps. When the flash is activated the BBZ10 waits until the picture is sharp before taking the shot. As a result, pictures taken with the flash on come out sharper.

The autofocus may not be perfect, but it's fast—sometimes too fast—and the phone shoots and saves just as quickly. The Time Shift function takes a burst of photos and then lets you pick the best one.

Image Quality

Pictures taken on the BBZ10 contain a fairly good amount of detail for a smartphone sensor, and the sharpness is consistent across the frame—unlike the iPhone 5 or Galaxy S3, you don't lose any detail or see more blur toward the edges of the shot. There's relatively little image noise (less than on the GS3, for instance). Regarding the colour accuracy, we noticed overtones of red in the lighter shades.

All in all, the BlackBerry Z10 is a decent camera phone, and the photo function has certainly improved since the previous generations. The Z10 merits a place in that selective circle of quality camera phones.